WHY WOULD A PRESIDENT HOLD A RALLY? – MARTHA KENNEDY

“I am here because I want to be among my friends and among the people,” Trump said to open his rally. “This was a great movement, a movement like has never been seen before in our country or before anywhere else, this was a truly great movement and I want to be here with you and I will always be with you.”

The fucker has “followers.”

***

“People want to take back control of their countries and they want to take back control of their lives and the lives of their family. The nation state remains the best model for human happiness,” Trump said.

Definitions from Webster’s…

Definition of nation–state: a form of political organization under which a relatively homogeneous people inhabits a sovereign state; especially: a state containing one as opposed to several nationalities

Definition of fascism
1: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

To answer my question, I came up with two things. 1) to gather his followers in preparation for an all-out fascist takeover of the country. But…it’s Melbourne, Florida. 2) because things aren’t going so well for him as President so he’s reverting to wannabe fascist dictator.

Those are both awful.

Yesterday I listened to as much as I could bear of his egregious and seemingly endless press conference. I realized that if he did not repeat everything he says, it would have been 30 minutes long instead of 3 times that long.

He relentlessly attacked the media, demeaning and humiliating actual human beings attempting to do their jobs and who would, probably, like to write something nice about him. But rather than changing HIS approach to the press, he orders them to “be nice” to him and see how much better their lives are.

A sincere and articulate Jewish guy stood up and made a point to say he KNEW 45 is not anti-Semitic and then asked how 45 was going to respond to anti-semitism on the part of his followers. Fuck face NEVER answered that question. Instead he berated the young man who asked it.

It’s a question that needs to be answered. If a small city in Montana can stand up to anti-semitism why can’t the President of the United States answer the honest concerns of a Jewish guy?

I don’t think it’s news ( ha ha) to anyone that not everything written or said in the media is the truth, nor is everything complete. I read a lot of non-news every day. Much of it on both sides is written to inflame either by throwing up a marginally accurate headline, for example, ‘Psychological warfare’: immigrants in America held hostage by fear of raids when the real story (printed below the headline) informs the reader that there was a memo on which action is unlikely ever to be taken but some people are still scared.

I, personally, long ago realized that I exist in a world in which millions and millions of people who are not like me also exist. I have always found this fact tremendously exciting. Rather than wanting LESS of that, I want MORE of that. I’m surrounded by people who voted for 45 and they’re good people. Their reasons are multifarious — everything from “I always vote Republican” to “I hate Hillary” to “I love this man” — and godnose what else.

he’s campaigning for the next four years after he has made this country great again (the implication being that it needs his help) and he is also afraid we will forget him. Oh, if there were a god…

the people who flood the papers and internet with bogus scare stories do as much damage as duhdonald, because too many of us want to believe what they want to believe. What he has done is awaken the Archie Bunker in a lot of people, and in those folks who are truly nervous around anyone who isn’t whitebread american.

He is also trying to turn this country into the same kind of dictatorship that many of these people fled.

We are also ripe for this, it’s been a long time since the 60s and the riots, the protests, the anger.

There was a Repub kind of guy on Colbert last night. He was not a “current” Repub guy. More like the old ones who think you should get elected and try to do what the people need you to do. He said these “rallies” are very frightening, especially in concert with so many other things he has said. I’m trying to not make myself completely crazy because no matter how important this is, and it is, I still need a few days off!

Yes, it has been apparently a LOT longer since the 60s than we imagined possible.

I don’t think presidents run the country. They might lead the country, but they don’t run it and that’s a good thing, IMO. I’m having a good time watching things not work. I love the court stopping the immigrant ban. I love that his Repub house and senate is not going to go for the wall because their more traditional Repub values are about cutting spending. I love that people are showing up at the Repub representatives’ townhalls and demanding to be heard. This is a very exciting time.

I feel that the extreme media on both sides is having too much fun scaring people but that gets them addicted to the media so $$$$. I’m stunned (and a little miffed) that terms like “critical thinking” and “sources” are suddenly very important to people — miffed because I taught this for 36 years and had a hell of a time getting anyone’s attention (though I did). I hate this man with all my heart, but there he is. The best thing that could happen is that his campaign promises will (necessarily) fail and maybe people will begin to see (as they should have seen with Obama) that there is no savior. We must be our own savior. We must fix our world, continuously working on it which is, I think, what people have been doing forever.

I’m not a pessimist. I study history all the time and the overall big picture I see is that humans have consistently striven to do better. That doesn’t mean they succeed or are invulnerable.

Presumably, the courts and the legislature and the president are running the country, as well as every state and its representatives. I think one of the more interesting things happening is how STATES are taking a lot of stuff back into their own hands. If DC won’t do it, well, okay. Massachusetts has always been proactive, but now, more so. Realizing since we cannot count on the Feds, we better just do it and watching our local reps and senators wake up from the long sleep. Well. Who’d have thunk it?

I’m glad of that. I’m a believer in states running themselves. I know that’s a kind of Libertarian agenda, but living in California I thought, “Why are we sending all our money to the Feds? We should keep our money and develop our own programs that fit the people who live here” and living out here (both times) I thought “Those urban centers have NO idea what’s going on out here or who we are.”

I don’t actually have a problem with that, but it is a bit more difficult in very small states like this one. Especially schools and in particular, building them. But we do try here. We have the lowest rate of prison incarceration in the country. We have the highest rate of health plans for everyone — and we had them BEFORE they showed up nationally because remarkably, that’s where the original idea for the national plan began. There are also really stupid things going on because politics IS Massachusetts’ own sport. Yes, we have Red Sox, Celtics, and of course, the Pats … but really, it’s politics. We love our pols, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

🙂 Colorado has fewer people than Massachusetts and because a few years ago Denver actually advertised in California newspapers for people to move there, it is becoming more and more a two-state state. Most of us is rural and where I live is one of the most economically depressed regions of the United States. BUT we do for ourselves. I believe if money were taken away from our schools, all of us teachers would teach anyway — godnose I’d volunteer — which is insane because people need money to live. I can see us going to a barter system. :p One thing this election might have brought to the top of the pond is the reality that we are more diverse than mere race. God I hope so. I wish so much that there was a “Lives of Poor People Matter” movement.

Pancho, it’s really hard to laugh with some of the late night guys right now. Last night, Colbert had a “Deliverance” type guy supposedly considering a run for the Senate. Usually that would be wickedly funny. But it’s so close to reality now, I couldn’t manage more than a weak smile. SAD!!

There was an interesting Republican guy last night on Colbert who was I think even more horrified than we are. He did think that unless whats-his-name gets it together, he will explode, or some equivalent of that. Because he used to be an actual pol before he discovered television, he has a pretty good grip on who is who and what is where among the Repubs and he said that privately, behind the rhetoric, they have other things to say … so … we can but hope it isn’t all rallies, golf, and frenzy.

It was Joe Scarborough. Morning Joe. He was right but didn’t admit he was SCROTUS’s biggest supporter and had him on all the time during the primaries. It was only after he showed himself to be the batshit crazy tinpot he his that he woke up. He now has a great deal of power. SCROTUS obsessively watches his show every morning.

I drove from Orlando to Ft Meyers earlier this week.
I ended up listening to the “Herman Cane” show. Well shuky-ducky, and WTF. These people love scrotus. I tried to stay below 80mph!
I also listened to an NPR station later and they seemed so much more “fair and balanced ” and never had to tell me that they were. I could hear it.
McCain and Lindsey Graham are my new favorite senators. I think they dispose scrotus and will stick it to him at any opportunity. If Lindsey gets primaried I may have to volunteer for him. Crazy, I know. But a D won’t get elected and we need guys like John and Lindsey.
Wow, what a rant! Sorry, I get fired up.